Fiona Apple Returns

Fiona Apple will release her long-delayed third album, Extraordinary Machine, on October 4th. "Now that my album is finally finished, I am very, very excited to have people hear what we did," Apple said in a statement. "I am so proud of it, and all of us who worked on it."

Apple began recording the follow-up to 1999's When the Pawn . . . with producer Jon Brion (Aimee Mann, Kanye West) in a Los Angeles studio in 2003. After When the Pawn . . ., Apple took a two-year hiatus, during which she spent time with family and friends, read, worked on her visual art, rode around on her bike and listened to very little music. Finally, she told Rolling Stone in 2003, "I started to get the itch." Sessions with Brion and drummer Matt Chamberlain led to the bulk of the Extraordinary tracks, which the singer-songwriter described at the time as "all over the place." "But I'm too close to the songs," she added. "You'll just have to decide for yourself."

Though eleven songs from Extraordinary surfaced online, Apple stayed mum and continued work on the set with producers Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg) and Brian Kehew (Beck, Eels). The twelve-track CD will include a brand new song, "Parting Gift," as well as re-recorded versions of nine of the songs previously leaked online.

Epic launched a newly designed Web site at Fiona-apple.com Monday, where fans can stream two Extraordinary songs, "Parting Gift" and "O' Sailor." Both tracks can also be heard at Apple's MySpace site and will be made available for download on iTunes this Tuesday.

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Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

More Song Stories entries »

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